BUCHAREST: President of Romania Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday expressed his willingness to discuss sending of Patriot missile system to Ukraine.
Earlier, Germany appealed to European Union and NATO member states to strengthen air defense of Ukraine.
EU governments, after appeals by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, were urged last month to supply more defense systems to Kyiv.
Germany has already committed an additional Patriot battery, while Spain said it will provide anti-aircraft Patriot missiles.
Other European nations including Greece, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, and Sweden also have Patriot systems.
After meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, Iohannis told reporters that there has been a discussion about which country can send Patriot systems to Ukraine over the last few weeks.
Romania signed its $4 billion agreement to procure Patriots in 2017, the NATO and EU state’s biggest contract to date, with the first shipment handed over in 2020.
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Iohannis said the talks concerned one of the batteries of the system which were in an advanced stage of becoming functional.
Romania, a NATO member since 2004, has a 650-km border with Ukraine and has had Russian drone fragments stray on its soil repeatedly as Moscow strikes Ukrainian ports across the Danube River from Romania.
Iohannis also said that during the meeting with Biden, he also talked about Romania’s bid for NATO’s top job.
Iohannis said he was not withdrawing his candidacy despite strong support within the European alliance – including from Biden – for outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
